underbill



(No Model.) 3 SheetsSheet 1. E. P. UNDERHILL 8: V. P. LAKE. FOLDING SEATS FOR THEATERS AND PUBLIC HALLS.

No. 268,154. Patented Nov. 28, 1882.

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FOLDING SEATS FOR THEATERS AND PUBLIG HALLS. N0.'268,154. Patented Nov. 28, 1882.

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FOLDING SEATS FOR THEATERS AND PUBLIG HALLS. No. 268,154. Patented Nov. 28, 1882.

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' UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EDVVARI) F. UNDERHILL AND VINCENT F. LAKE, OF NElV YORK, N. Y.

FOLDING SEAT FOR THEATERS AND PUBLIC HALLS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 268,154, dated November 28, 1882.

Application filed April 10, 1882. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that W9,EDWARD F. UNDER.- HILL and VINCENT F; LAKE, both of New York, county of New York, State of New York, have inventednew and useful Improvements in Folding Seats for Theaters and Public Halls, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings,making part of this specification,'-in which-- Figure l is a perspective view of a portion of a recessed floor with a row of seats applied and in position for use. Fig. 2 represents a transverse section through a portion of the recessed flooring, showing the form of the opening through the upper portion thereof. Fig. 3 is a plan view of the mechanism for adjustin g and raising and lowering the seats. Fig. 4 is a perspective view enlarged of one of the seats and a portion of one of the supports therefor. Fig. 5 is a vertical section through the seat and a portion of the recessed flooring, showing in full and dotted lines different positions of the back in folding and unfolding and the relation of said back to the recessed floor; and Fig. 6 is a perspective view, showing the joint between one end rail of the seatframe and its supporting-standard with the spring applied thereto.

My invention relates to that class offolding seats employed in connection with a recessed floor or platform and adapted to be folded into recesses therein; and it consists in a novel construction of the seats and of the folding backs thereto for giving a curved form to the sections or rows of seats and to the recesses in the fioor for their reception in a novel means for effecting the adjustment of the seats; in a novel means for automatically raising or unfolding the hinged backs ofthe seats when the seats are raised out'of the recesses in the floor, and for automatically folding them when the seats are lowered, and in certain details of construction and arrangement, hereinafter described.

In the accompanying drawings, AA represent a recessed or double floor, A representing the upper portion having recesses or openings a, provided for the passage of the seats through it, and A the lower portion in flooring, forming the supports for the seats and the bottom of the recesses therefor. The recess or opening a is represented as curved longitudinally for giving acurved or so-called circular form to the rows of seats, and some of the features hereinafter described have particular reference or applicability to this arrangementof the seats, while others of them, it will be seen, will be found to be equally applicable to seats in which the rows are arranged in right lines instead of in curved lines.

B represents a seat-frame composed of a rear curved bar or rail, b, conforming to the curvature of the slot or opening a, and rigidly connected to side bars, 1: b, and intermediate bars arranged between the seats and forming supports for the seats 0, pivoted therein.

1) are the backs, connected by short arms (I with pivot-pins 01, let into the upper faces of the rail b, and surrounded by spiral springs d arranged to exert their tension to lift the backs D into position for use. (Shown in the drawings These backs are pivoted or hinged separately to the curved back rail, I), conforming to the curvature of the latter, and, being hinged thereto to adapt them to fold forward and down upon the seats, they are necessarily made to taper from their lower hinged ends or edges to their swinging ends, the taper being such as to adapt them, when folded down up on the seats, to rest snugly in contact one with another at their sides and together to exactly fill the recess or opening a in the floor. 'lhe springs d are designed to have sufficient force to automatically raise the backs D into position for use when the seats are raised out of the recess a.

By the use of the short arms or ears cl formare lowered into said recess the lower edge of 100 the backs are brought into contact with the floor, when the further descent of the seats causes the backs to be rocked forward and folded upon the seats, closing the opening at and forming a flooring over the seats. The front and rear walls, a (1, of the opening are made flaring and the upper and lower edges of the backs D are made of corresponding form, soas to snugly fill the opening and to' rest upon the beveled front and rear walls thereof, the weightof the seatsserving to hold the backs snugly down thereon. The backs are connected with thebars at the sides ofand between the seats by jointed links e e, which serve as arms to theseats when the latter are raised, and the upright portions e thereof, working against stops on the arms, as described in another application, not only serve to assist in limiting the backward throw of the backs, but also, in connection with the arm portion 0, to materially aid in support ing or bracing the backs in the desired position for use. The end bars, I), are provided with pendent perforated lugs or cars 0 matching or fitting between corresponding earsfj on standards F at the ends of the seat-frame and connected therewith by through pins or pivots fsurrounded by spiralspringsf The standards F are provided, each at its lower end with a transverse rod, G, having frictionrollers g g on its ends, said rollers resting and moving on the floorA eitherdirectly, as shown, or in suitable ways thereon and underneath guiding-brackets h and h, secured thereto for guiding their movements and preventing forward and backward vibration of the supports or standards F, and of the seats secured to and upheld thereby.

I I are rack-bars arranged at right angles to the seat ends upon which they operaterespectively,and working insuitable guideways upon or grooves in the floor A. Where the rows or sections are short and the rack-bars cross each other obliquely, as indicated in the drawings, they will be arranged necessarily in different horizontal planes,as shown; but where the rows areot' sufficientlength to obviate the crossing of the racks, they may be arranged in the same horizontal plane. These rack-bars are provided on their outer opposite ends with expanded crescent-shaped headsi, having each a semi-cylindrical socket on its outer face in which the cross-heads or rods G on the supports F rest.

Motion may be imparted to the shaft M in any convenient manner and from any convenient motor for raising and lowering the seats. The seat-supports F are not fastened to the rack-bars I and I, and consequently are free to remain in an upright position for supporting the seat when the rack-bars are operated for lowering the seat, this arrangement allowing any row of seats to remain elevated in case of,

obstruction and until the obstruction is removed. When the seat-standards are lowered and the rack-bars I and I are entirely withdrawn the latter are released from the pinionsj j and rest over blank spaces on the V rack-bars, this arrangement leaving the seats entirely free to rest by gravity in the receptacle in the floor. In order to give the seats a start upward, the rear ends of the shafts I and l are provided with cam-plates N and N, rigidly secured to said shafts and arranged underneath the seat-frame bar or rail 1), the rounded cam-faces of the plates acting thereon, when the frame is down, for giving it the first movement or start upward as the shafts J and J are rotated. The pinionsj and j are provided each with a laterally-projecting pin, j near its periphery, which, as the shattsJ and J are rotated for raising the seat, engage with pinsj on the rack-bars for drawing the latter into engagement with the pinionsj and 3', so that by the time the cam'plates have ceased to acton the seat-frame the rack-bars are brought into action for completing the work of raising the seat,

By the construction and arrangement deseat cannot only remain up when the rack-bars are operated for lowering them, but they are free from any pressure from the rack-bars when the seats are down.

The standards F are provided on their outer faces with spursfflwhich, as the seats are raised, pass between the ears of flange-brackets pp, secured to the side timbers, A of the sockets or recesses a. These brackets are represented as provided with threaded shanlzs, adapting them to be screwed into place and to be adjusted in the side walls 01: timbers of the recesses; but they may he applied in any convenient way, and serve to prevent forward and backward vibration of the seat-supports F and of the seats connected therewith. They also serve to hold the standards slightly removed from the side walls of the recess, and so prevent interference of the latter with the folding supports. 7

The springs f upon the pivot connecting the seat-standard F with the seat-frame are so applied as to exert their tension, when the seats are up, to fold the supports under the seat, and when folded to exert their tension to aid in supporting the weight of the seat, with an intermediate neutral point, in such manner as to assist in starting both in folding and in raising the seat.

One form of this spring is shown in Fig. 6,

IIO

IIS

where it is shown wrapped in spiral form upona hinge-pin,f, between the lugs ffof the folding seat-standard, with its ends passed one through an eye in the end rail of the seat-frame and the other through an eye in the standard, the spring being in its neutral or normal position when the standard is partly folded under the seat. Any movement of the standard in either direction from said position, in folding or unfolding it, causes the spring either to wrap the pivot-pin more closely or to unwrap it, and thus to create a tension upon the spring, acting to assist in starting to either fold or unfold the seat. Other arrangements ofthe spring than that shown may be employed, if preferred. 7

By the construction of the standards F, in-

connection with the arrangement of means for adjusting them, above described, we are enabled to dispense with the jointed toggle-links or lazy-tongs described in our former applica with and folding into recesses in said floor, of

folding backs arranged to conform to the curvature of the rows of seats, and made taper; ing to adapt them to fold over said seats and snugly cover the recesses in the floor, substantially as described. I

3. The combination, with a recessed floorand seats connected therewith and folding into recesses in said floor,- of the hinged backs to said seats connected to their hinge-pins by short armsor levers, adapting the backs, when raised, to overhang the rear walls of the recesses, and the rear walls of the recesses operating, in connection with said arms, to automatically fold the backs when the seats are lowered into the recesses.

4. The combination, with a recessed floor, of seats connected to said floor and folding into recesses therein, folding backs hinged to said seats by lever arms, adapting said backs, when raised, to overhang the rear walls of the recesses, springs for automatically raising the backs, and the portion of flooring overhung by said raised backs for automatically folding said backs, substantially as described.

5. The combination, with arecessed floor and a seat connected therewith and folding into a recess in said floor, of supporting standards hinged to said-seat, and springs attached at the pivotal connection of the supports with said seat for assisting to startthe seat in both raising and lowering the same substantially as described.

6. The combination, with the recessed floor and a seat connected therewith and foldinginto a recess therein, of the hinged supports to said seat, and adjustable stops for preventing forward and backward vibration of said supports when the seats are raised into position for use.

In testimony whereof we have hereunto set our hands this 3d day of April, A. D. 1882. EDWARD F. UNDERHILL.

VINCENT F. LAKE. Witnesses RoBr'HAs'rINes, W. H. MGINTIRE. 

